Get Up On: Bloggers New Follow Function.

Get Up On: Publicly Following Blogs!

Honestly, I didn't pay any attention to it when it hit. Sometimes it takes me a while to adapt to new technology. (I didn't have a CD player until a full three years after they hit and I still don't know what the GENIUS on my Itunes is supposed to do.) But then, one day, as I was walking past my Dashboard to go post some brilliant post, I saw that I had a Follower.

"1 Follower" it helpfully said. And when I clicked on it, there was a link to my one and only follower, Mr.Matt who artfully keeps this charming blog, right here.

After checking things out a little bit, I got the skinny on this whole "Following" business. The deal is, once you "Follow" a blog, the latest updates of it appear on the Dashboard of your blog. If you see something interesting, you click on the entry and it pops up in a new window and VIola! You've got an updated Reader that tracks latest entries from your favorite blogs. It's like you have a constantly updating newspaper full of whatever your favorite writers and friends are up to. It's a newspaper customized to my interests. I care much more what you people are up to and a lot less what Britney Spears is up to. So, it's the perfect newspaper.

Also, it makes people happy to see that someone is following their blog. Look at this! I followed this guy and got a shout-out on his blog for being his internet buddy. A week later, I gave him a hundred bucks to settle an old tab! So, in THIS case, using the follow function made this guy a HUNDRED BUCKS!

Also, you can create a widget in your sidebar that brags about the high quality folks that check out your blog. Which links them back to their blog. The Internet Superhighway equivalent of the Circle of Life.

Also, you can add another widget that updates your sidebar with the latest posts of the blogs that you follow. I haven't done this yet, but it's coming soon. People will look at my blog and say, "Oh! Arnie posted something new! Let me see what he's up to!" Trust me, it will happen.

There are only two drawbacks to this great, big, free-text, love-in...

A.) First, you have to PUBLICLY follow a blog to let the blogger know that you read his/her stuff. Otherwise, why post a widget displaying your one reader, when your blog is actually getting a ton of hits. (And of course, you have to have a Blogger acct to be a Blogger follower. Which is hard cheese to the blog-impaired, but that's your own fault for fearing words.)

B.) Second...I forgot what the other drawback is. I was so amused by my clever use of the term "Hard Cheese for [somebody]" that I forgot the second point that I was going to make. Oh well, Hard Cheese for me, I guess?

So, really, there's only a single drawback to keep you from following a blog (publicly) and it's not a very good one. If we all adopt this system, we will all look and feel appreciated by tens of twenty's of people. Insanely popular amongst a select group of people who already know us in real life. And isn't that exactly the sort of thing that we should encourage.

In summary, here are my key points.

1.) Publicly follow the blogs that you like. Good for them. Good for you.

2.) "Hard Cheese" is a clever turn of phrase. Use it often.

Oh wait! I just remembered the other drawback. Blogger Follower doesn't recognize and update every blog. Try as I might, I can't get it to recognize my favorite sex column "Violet Blue" (NSFW, kiddies!) Instead, I have to manually click over there to see what that naughty little minx is up to. So, it's not a perfect system.

But don't let that be a drawback for you, either. Embrace the system that's currently in place. Trust that Blogger will work out the kinks and share the love. Follow the blogs that you love. Or at least that interest you. Let a blogger know that you appreciate their narcissistic navel-gazing. (At the very least, you'll see your clever profile pic pop up in a teeny tiny pic on somebody's sidebar! That's something, right?)

Get Up On: Publicly Following the Blogs You Love.